


Just a Flicker.

by rise_excalibur



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Breif mention of amy, Drabble, M/M, Warming Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 12:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2581025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rise_excalibur/pseuds/rise_excalibur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, in the dead of night, Kieren would feel a flicker in his wrist or at the side of his neck, like the memory of a heartbeat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just a Flicker.

Sometimes, in the dead of night, Kieren would feel a flicker in his wrist or at the side of his neck, like the memory of a heartbeat. It would ghost beneath his skin and he would pause, choking on a breath he didn’t need. He worried he was becoming immune to his medication. He worried he was hallucinating. They were such gentle touches, like a single hair falling on a bare arm. So soft that they might be imagined. They first came to him two months ago, shortly after Amy’s death and then with more regularity since. Last week he walked to the bungalow, silently slipped inside to the muted home where Amy still clung to the corners. Muffled footfalls brought him to the bedroom and he stood in the doorway, the boundary between the room and the hallway. Simon lay atop the covers, eyes closed and bathed in orange streetlight. As he watched his sleeping friend, the noises of the night had seemed to stop, the wind settle. He had crossed over to kneel by Simon’s side, their faces level. He let a tentative finger trace Simon’s brow, another brush against the wool of his jumper. He could remember what they would feel like. In that hushed moment, Kieren felt he could be truly happy if he always had this man by his side and felt a familiar flutter where his pulse should be. Now Kieren lies in his own bed, Simon tucked into his side. Drops of rain clink against his window, rhythmic. Simon’s voice is slow as he reads aloud from a battered book of poems, whispering into Kieren’s neck. 

"And God stands winding His lonely horn,  
And time and the world are ever in flight;  
And love is less kind than the grey twilight,   
And hope is less dear than the dew of the morn.”

“I could paint that poem” Kieren says into the hushed reverence that follows “What would you paint?” 

“I don’t know. I’d make it happier I think. Swap the grey for the pale pink of a new day or a flower blooming.” 

Simon’s fingers tangle with his own and he sits up, no longer sleepy-eyed but with a gaze solemn and sincere. 

“I think, Kieren Walker, that I should always be happy so long as you are by my side.” Outside, the rain swells and a streak of lightning floods the room, harsh light illuminating their faces. And in his wrist and at the side of his neck, there is not a flicker but a thud. 

Th-thud. 

Th-thud.

Find me on tumblr here: http://rise-excalibur.tumblr.com/ :)


End file.
